Creator of Yoon-Suin and other materials. Propounding my half-baked ideas on role playing games. Jotting down and elaborating on ideas for campaigns, missions and adventures. Talking about general industry-related matters. Putting a new twist on gaming.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

"Today the Doctors Allowed the Illusion of Choice."

So as you may know, I've been thinking about running a PBP game, but can't decide what to run - there are just too many wonderful options. So here's a strange idea. By coincidence, I just the other day thought up a new and special system for governing human interaction whereby people offer their opinions about what they want (or "cast a vote", if you will), whereupon those opinions (or "votes", if you prefer) are collated, and the majority decision is carried. I call this system "democracy", from the Greek demos (or "people") and kratos (or "strength"). You are free to use it in the conduct of your own lives, if you wish.

The strange idea is that people who want to play in a PBP or play-by-chat game run by me can submit to me their opinion (or "cast their vote") whereupon I will count the "votes" for and against the various options and via "democratic" means will decide on what to run. I know this is likely mindboggling stuff for my readership, but bear with me.

I will now list the options available. Interested parties should send me an email at jeanDOTdelumeau AT gmail DOT com saying "I would like to play [x]" where x is the title of the game. Preference will be given to people who I know and am involved in or have been involved in a game with. I'll choose about 4-6 people, count the votes, then choose a game based on that and let people know by Monday-ish. Deal? Here are the options:

Pendragon, but set in the Land of My Fathers, Cumbria/Scotland. Feudal knights in the north of Britain, facing off against Picts, Irishmen, Saxons and giants. No kilts because they hadn't been invented yet.

Cyberpunk 2020, set in Chigasaki. Low down and dirty, more Burning Chrome than Snow Crash or Bladerunner.

Sandbox ICE Middle Earth Role Playing in the Late Third/Early Fourth Age. Tolkien's entire creation as a playground. No appearance of canon characters because that's boring.

I like games that are fairly serious in tone, in which the players take initiative and have to expect it's likely their characters will die at some point if they're not careful. I don't have a preordained story in mind and what happens in the game generally does by player choice.

I'd have to third the vote for Cyberpunk 2020. I'm not against Pendragon, because it has all the makings of a cool game; I just know Cyberpunk 2020 best and have had a lot of fun with it. I think it would translate very well for a PBP, both in genre and mechanics.

A Middle-Earth Sandbox sounds pretty cool too, but would only work if you have PBP players who were able to post frequently and elaborately enough (in a LotR style) to keep the storyline engaging (or the GM would have to write a LOT). Still, sandbox style is really good for PBP, if it's done well.